I love what I do

I love to make people happy, and I think I've found a way to do that on a weekly basis. Every week, I spend hours in my kitchen baking my favorite recipes to share with the rest of the world. I just can't tell you what it means to me, and how happy it makes me, to hear how much my customers like my goodies. I think I've talked about this before, but every week, I'm always amazed that people I don't even know are willing to go out of their way to tell me how much they like my desserts, or to go out of their way to tell other people about my desserts. Sure, I expect this kind of support from my mom and dad, and even my husband; but that's what makes the support of my customers so special. They have no obligation to like my treats, or to tell me how much they like my treats, or to tell other people how much they like my treats. But they do all of those things anyway. And for that, I'm very, very grateful. It's great customers like that that keep a business going, so to all of you, I appreciate your generous support!

So let me tell you about this week. I was so tired last Thursday, and ran so many errands during the day, that yet again, I ran out of time to bake that day. So instead, I baked on Friday. I started after dinner around 7:00 and was done by 10:00. I got three goodies done and out of the way, which was great progress. Jack was playing football on the PlayStation with his friend, Armand, so I wasn't missed in the TV room. On Saturday morning, I got started at 6:30 am and was done by 11:00 am or so. I made great time that day. We even had time to clean the house afterwards. On Sunday, all I had left to make were the brownies, HappyJacks, and pies. I was done with those before it was time for church at 10:00 am. Of course, Sunday evening included packaging, as it always does, which takes a good two hours every week. Jack and I do most of the work, and occasionally let Lila help out by having her carry packed cookies to the table we use for organizing all of the packs. It's funny how even the smallest of tasks can make a five year old feel included.

At the market on Monday, Jack was unable to join me, so I was on my own for most of the time. My mom and Lila came down to help me set up, and they stuck around for a while. Lila found a new playmate in Olivia, my friend Deanna's daughter, so she didn't want to leave. They were instant pals. The market started very slow this day for some reason. There just weren't as many people milling about at 3:00 like there usually are. I was worried it was going to be a slow day, but in the end, it turned out to be one of my better days. I didn't have a featured item for this week, but I did give away a few snickerdoodle blondies to some of my repeat customers. I have since heard from three of them, and they all loved the new goodie. I might have to make them again and see how well they sell this coming week.

I had a few visitors this week. My fabulous friend, Faith, stopped by with her daughter Jordan. Faith lives on the East side of Pittsburgh, so I was grateful that she took time out of her day (and gas out of her tank) to drive out to support me. And she bought three different kinds of cookies. She was really looking forward to trying the Squish Monsters, so hopefully she wasn't disappointed. My new friend, Sean, a co-worker of mine and Jack's, stopped by, too, with his beautiful German Shepherd, Din. She is a very pretty dog. Sean tried my lime cookies, but I forgot to ask him today how he liked them. Friends of my mom's and dad's stopped by as well. I'm glad they told me who they were because I didn't recognize them (sorry about that, Carol). A neighbor of ours stopped by, too, and I felt bad because I had her name wrong. All this time I thought her name was Angela, but it's Andrea. Duh. I promise to not get that wrong again. Of course, there were all my regulars, too, and I'm always very delighted to see them come back for a chit chat.

Last week, I had bought a chalkboard easel to set out in front of my table to try to draw in customers. It seems to be working, as I think I sold a few HappyJacks and a pie that I might not have normally sold.

Lastly, I acquired two new followers on FaceBook and Twitter that stopped by my table yesterday. I was very grateful for their tweets, promoting my stand at the market. And to the girl that couldn't wait to come and buy some Cinnasnappers, and the girl that turned her on to the Cinnasnappers, thanks so much! I love those cookies, too! Finally, I received an email from a new customer who tried my Squish Monsters for the first time. I'm happy to say that she's delighted with them and can't wait to come back and get more.

Hopefully those of you reading this are feeling the same way, and will come and see me next week at Caste Village! Until next time....

$40 lost and found

I'll get to that title in a minute.

But first, let me bore you with the latest at HappyJack Bakery. Last Thursday, I had so much going on, I couldn't find the time to bake for the market. So I skipped it, but ended up baking chocolate chip and PBL Dreams on Friday night. Both Saturday and Sunday found me up at 6:15 am, but done baking by Noon-ish. On Saturday, we still had time to go out for lunch, and then spend the afternoon with our friends. Sunday, we had time to do some shopping at IKEA and Target. I met Franklin at IKEA. He's a lovely, folding bar stool.... tall, low back, and footrest—exactly what I needed to keep me company at the market.

So today was market day. I did really well. It started off, only 30 minutes in, when this very sweet woman stopped by, and told me she was going to call me earlier over this past weekend. She had a fundraiser that she needed to take cookies to this week, and was going to call to see if I would bake them for her. She couldn't find the time to call, because she's been taking care of her husband, who has been in and out of the hospital recently, and is recovering from surgery. She ended up buying my only apple pie that I made this week, plus four packs of cookies. Next came the mom and son team who really like my Cinnasnappers. She asked how many I had today, and I said "Five packs that are here on the table, but more are in the truck." She said, "I'll take all five here." Sweet! I had a few other people that came and bought four or five packs of various cookies, as well. At one point, a nice girl, perhaps late twenties-early thirties, stopped by and was having a hard time deciding what to take. She ended up buying two packs of cookies, one pack being my A-maize-ingly Lime Cookies. About 10 minutes later, she came rushing back to my table from the parking lot and said, "I just had one and they are fabulous! I need to buy another pack!" She bought my last pack of those.

One woman stopped and bought some chocolate chip cookies. She's been to my table before, and as she was leaving, she said, "You have a really good product here." Another regular commented on how lovely my packaging is. And another woman, who bought some PBL Dreams, ended up coming back twice with two different women, trying to get them to buy some of my cookies. She was a great promoter of my bakery, and for that, I'm very, very grateful. It really is an unexplainable feeling when total strangers come back week after week because you make something they really like. It really makes this adventure so much fun!

So you're probably wondering what's up with the $40 that was lost and found, right? Well, when I got home, I counted my cash, and counted what I had left over. I calculated that I should have brought in $40 more than I had. I was getting pretty anxious about it. Forty dollars is a lot of money, especially when it's your own sweat and tears that are behind the work. Anyway, I counted, double counted, then triple counted. The money was just not there. Then I was starting to get super sad about it. I felt defeated. How could I have made such a big mistake? Did I drop it? Where could it have gone? Then Jack, trying to help, starting prodding me with questions. Fortunately, one of the questions he asked was, "Are you sure you started out with the same amount of change as you always do?" Well, that sparked my memory. I had gone to the bank last Thursday, and got some $1s and $5s that I knew I would need to replenish for my change pouch. And I kept telling myself last night that I should do my paperwork from my banking last week before I start sales for this week, but I was too tired, so I didn't do it. Well, sure enough, my $1s and $5s ($40 worth) were still sitting in an envelope up in our office. I had never added them back to my change envelope, although I was counting the money today as if I had. So there it was. My $40 was found almost as quickly as I discovered it was missing. I was so grateful to jack for helping me solve that problem.

Before I leave you for the night, I'm now perplexed with where to go next. My new friend, Deanna, has invited me to sell my stuff at her table at another farmer's market on Tuesdays. But I still have a pretty full-time part-time job. I'm not sure how often I can justify taking another hour or two of vacation time each week to go selling my baked goods. But I'd like to try it, even if it's just to see how well my products sell at other markets. She also sells at another market on Thursdays. I don't work on Thursdays, so this one might actually be a good one for me to look into getting a table at, even if was just for a week or two, again to just see how my products sell at other markets. But selling more means having to find the time to bake more, and right now, with only having weekends to do it, I'm not sure I want to give up more family time in order to bake more. It's so hard to figure out the right balance between personal life stuff, my regular job, and my passion. I just keep trusting that God will guide me in the right direction.

Friendly faces

I had fun today.

I arrived at the market around 2:30 to get my tent set up. Joyce, the vendor who makes fudge, came over to help with my tent. She's so kind. And then when Lila arrived a few minutes later, she brought her over a present—a bottle of bubbles and a large bubble wand. Joyce is always so pleasant; Lila loves to visit her at her table. And Joyce is so good with Lila. It's very sweet.

My mom came down for a little while to help me get set up, and she stuck around for the first 30 minutes or so of sales. It's nice to have company, but this time, it wasn't so bad to man the table alone after she left. Jack didn't arrive until close to 6:00 pm, so I was on my own for a good 2-1/2 hours. During that time frame, I was able to chat with quite a few people that stopped at my table. Some of them bought goodies; others just looked, inquired, and shot the breeze with me.

An older woman asked how long I've been baking. I realized I didn't know the answer (when did this all start?), but I guessed at about 20 years. Then she referred to me as a "kid", and yes, my 41-year old bones were loving that. A few people inquired about placing orders, Christmas cookies, and a peach pie. Several asked where my bakery is located, and I told them that I bake from my kitchen right here in Whitehall. That always seems to intrigue people. Then I had one person ask, "Did you make these pies?" I'm not sure what answer they expected. Where would they have come from if I didn't make them? Then it made me wonder, do some people not realize that I'm spending every spare moment every weekend fresh-baking these items I'm selling? Do they think I'm buying them at the local grocery store and reselling them under a different name? I hope not, but I guess anything is possible.

There is occasionally an Amish truck selling baked goods, but they weren't there today. I asked a few women who came to my table, who usually buy from the Amish, why they like the Amish cookies so much. I wondered, what do they have that I don't have? They told me that they're much cheaper than my cookies are. But in the end, personally to me, it's not just about cost. It's about value for the cost, and the experience you get at my table. I've had several people tell me what they don't like about the Amish's treats. And I've had many, many people stand at my table and talk about how good my products are, and how great they look, etc., etc. So I don't think I'm too worried. I have a nice clientele who come back week after week, and I'm grateful for my customers that have such wonderful things to say about my goodies. (Although I guess I wouldn't be writing about this if I weren't just a little worried that the next time the Amish truck is there, some of my business will be lost to them. Why do people associate the Amish with good baked goods, anyway? Other people in this world can bake, right?)

Again, I was grateful to see some friendly faces in the crowd. My friend, Tara, stopped by with her two daughters. One of Lila's friends and her mom and sisters stopped by. My friend, the wants-to-be-a-baker-when-he-retires one, stopped by with his wife. Some of my closest friends, Mike and Molly, stopped. The woman and her son who love my Cinnasnappers stopped by and bought the few that I had this week. The I-think-they're-two-sisters-and-a-brother group stopped by. Margot and Tony stopped, as did my next-door neighbors. And Deanna gave me more great tips this week. We're going to try to get together later this week to share some strategies. I'm excited. Lastly, one of my good friend's mom and dad stopped by at the end of the night. They live out in Plum, so it was a haul for them to make it over, but I was grateful to see them. It's always nice to get surprise visitors.

The weather was nice today. Warm at times when the sun shone bright, but there was a breeze, and it was a bit cloudy, so it was bearable. Much better than last week. I tried selling a new cookie today that my boss named for me—Love Triangles. It's three cookies in one: chocolate chip, peanut butter, and chocolate. Total yumminess. Sales were pretty decent. I didn't sell out, but came close. About 90% of my product sold. But I'm stumped, yet again, with what to make, and in what quantities, for next week. This week, the oatmeal cookies didn't move very well, but they've sold out in other weeks. It's so unpredictable. Only one pie sold. At least this time, I only made two, so that wasn't quite as big of a loss as it has been.

Anyway, all in all, it was a good day. I was grateful for Jack's company when he arrived, as things really do slow down after 6:00, plus I really needed a bathroom break. Lila made it out a few minutes before we started to close up shop, and it was nice to have her there, too. It's really turned into a family affair. And I'm loving it every step of the way.

Hot, hot, hot!

Oh my gosh, yesterday was stinking hot! I'm almost embarrassed to even write a post about it, but I did so terribly yesterday, it's not even funny. I had decided to make about 90 items (I think I ended up with 95); that was based on how much I sold each of the last two weeks. It seemed like a good number to go with. But I wasn't certain what to expect. It was July 5th, the end of a holiday weekend. Many businesses were closed. I thought that perhaps we'd have a new crowd—the people that are normally at work from 3:00 to 7:00 on a Monday and can't make it to the market. But I didn't expect that the regular regulars weren't going to come. I also thought it was possible that some people wouldn't come because they'd be at picnics, or that they had already bought their farmer's market items a few days earlier in order to prepare for picnics over the weekend. At any rate, I thought that for each customer that normally would have come that didn't, there would have been a customer that would come that couldn't normally get to us.

I was so wrong. There just wasn't anyone. Perhaps the 90+ degree heat had something to do with it, too. Sure, there were a few people, and I was happy to see a few of my regulars stop by. I'm always grateful to see the Fiore's. They live close to us, and Jack coached their daughter in volleyball a few years back. They're really nice people, and they seem to really like my goodies, so that makes me happy. There is another group that always stops by... two women and a man. I'm guessing that they're brother and sisters, but I don't really know. And then my new friend who also has a desire to open a baking business someday—he stopped by and brought me his brownies he promised to make for me. They were pretty darn good. Very rich and chocolatey—they had a prevailing dark chocolate flavor. But it's hard to beat the taste of something you've made for years and really have a love of. I still prefer my brownies, as I think they have a nice texture (firm, but cake-like), and that fudge frosting on top is to die for. But I was grateful to have a treat that someone else made. They made a great dessert after dinner this evening.

I met another new friend—a fellow bakery vendor named Deanna. She had some good information regarding her journey to baking for a living. She recently quit her job and is now baking at a commercial kitchen she rents that's located in a coffee shop. She's selling to that coffee shop, and others, and is working several farmer's markets. This is where I'd like to be some day, but I don't know if I can financially afford to do it. We'll see where God takes me down this journey. In the meantime, she was kind enough to take my leftover apple pies to try to sell them at another market she was selling at today. I'm anxious to see if she had any luck.

Oh, in the end, I only sold about 1/3 of what I made. Hopefully it will all keep well until next week so I can at least have somewhat of a weekend off. I'll still need to bake, but not nearly as much as I have been. It will be nice to have some quality family time this weekend.

Until next time...